LIVE STOCK. ■ 411 



sand fowls and large flocks of ducks and turkeys witk very great 

 success. His profits, and the quite uniform results of several 

 years, indicate that with his circumstances one may raise an 

 almost unlimited amount of poultry. But many farmers would 

 find it inconvenient to carry on the business on Mr. Leland's 

 system. He gives to it a large area of woodland and meadow, 

 with various exposure, and a good stream of running water, and 

 exercises but little restraint over his birds. They go where and 

 when they please, roost in trees or in a warm stone houseas 

 they please, and hatch their broods in prepared boxes or in 

 natural nooks as they please. His proportional loss is very 

 small J the number of eggs he obtains is probably pretty nearly as 

 large in degree as it would be with a small flock, and his success 

 with early and late chickens is enough to satisfy any breeder. 

 Of course, even in this very natural system, the fowls are by no 

 means left in an unguided state of nature ; for a skillful person de- 

 votes his whole time to their feeding and supervision, and to great 

 care with reference to sitting hens. The feeding is liberal but 

 not wasteful, and the poultry-raising is an important branch of 

 the business of the farm rather than a mere incident. 



Many years ago, in Western New York, an aged couple sup- 

 ported themselves by the production of eggs on a place of about 

 four acres. They kept a thousand laying hens and no cocks. 

 The whole place was surrounded by a high fence, and was 

 divided into two plots, the fowls being kept in one of the plots of 

 two acres during the whole of one season, while corn was being 

 raised on the other ; and the land was kept for several years in 

 . this uniform rotation of poultry and Indian corn. The eggs were 

 sold by contract throughout the season for eleven cents a dozen, 

 and the annual income varied but little from a thousand dollars. 

 In the autumn the fowls were slaughtered and sent to market, 

 and a fresh lot of early pullets was bought early in the next sea- 

 son. This man believed, on comparing the production of corn 

 on his own land with that of the neighborhood, that the manure 

 of the poultry increased the crop to such an extent that the extra 

 product was sufficient for the entire season's feeding. Probably 



